IMSA: Albuquerque leads opening practice at Laguna Seca

Acura picked up where it left off again at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. Coming off consecutive wins and Motul Pole Awards in each of the past two IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship races at the historic circuit, the manufacturer set the pace Friday in opening practice for the Hyundai Monterey Sports Car Championship.

Filipe Albuquerque pushed the No. 10 Konica Minolta Acura ARX-05 DPi around the demanding 2.238-mile road course in 1 minute, 14.880 seconds (107.595 mph) to head the 26-car field in the one-hour session. The time was 0.155 seconds quicker than the track qualifying record set by Albuquerque’s teammate, Ricky Taylor, in 2019.

Taylor won last year’s WeatherTech Raceway event with Helio Castroneves, on their way to capturing the Daytona Prototype international (DPi) championship with Acura Team Penske. Taylor and Albuquerque moved to Wayne Taylor Racing this season and have the No. 10 Acura atop the DPi standings.

Pipo Derani, who along with Felipe Nasr in the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R have closed to within 41 points of the No. 10 Acura, was second in practice with a lap of 1:14.974 – also under the official track record. Derani and Nasr have won each of the past two DPi races.

Other class leaders on Friday were: Mikkel Jensen (No. 52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA LMP2 07) in Le Mans Prototype 2, at 1:16.115 (0.702 seconds under the LMP2 qualifying standard); Nick Tandy (No. 4 Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette C8.R) in GT Le Mans, at 1:22.081; and Bill Auberlen (No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW M6 GT3) in GT Daytona, at 1:24.630.

Practice Results